Election Day: Behind Enemy Lines(Pollwatcher's account of Philly hijinks he witnessed)

see comments section | 11/5/04 | texasrainmaker

[Diddle E. Squat]

I take special pride in this week's election results because I was a foot soldier in enemy territory for the battle. Along with several hundred very anxious and very capable attorneys, I went into Northeast Philadelphia as a "Lawyer For Bush". For those of you who don't know what that means, imagine yourself strapping on 50 pounds of red meat and jumping into shark-infested waters... or worse, imagine covering yourself in twinkies and cookie dough and entering Michael Moore's house.

I spent the final 72 hours of the 2004 campaign season in Philadelphia. Pushing my way through Kerry supporters in front of our Headquarters in downtown Philly, I was amazed at the animosity in their voices. Walking anywhere downtown, one would see gatherings of 10 - 20 Kerry supporters at many intersections holding up signs and cars honking their praise. I certainly felt like I was behind enemy lines. Being bombarded with this every waking minute was enough to make me really question whether I was on the winning team. Not that I would've changed sides for anything, I did feel a sense of envy with those Democrats who seemed to have all the momentum in the world. My optimism only grew weaker on election day as I took on the task I had traveled across the country to perform.

Our task was to monitor a certain set of precincts around Philadelphia to insure a fair election process. From what I had been told going in, Philadelphia was a bastion of voting fraud. The Democrat infrastructure I personally witnessed left me feeling less than confident in our electoral process.

Each side is allowed to have "Poll Watchers" inside the polling place to monitor the situation. Unfortunately, it seems Philadelphia was about 99.9% Democrat, so the RNC folks apparently dragged dollar bills through the streets to hire poll watchers. Needless to say, this didn't seem to help our cause much.

Some of our poll watchers showed up late or generally just "didn't get it". They were there for the money and that was it. A few poll watchers were on the ball, and happened to catch the opening of the voting machines that magically already had votes for Kerry on them. Given that our poll watchers were probably only able to see about 10% of all machines before the polls opened, I can only imagine how many "Kerry votes" were present across the city and states before the polls even opened on Tuesday.

Apart from generally monitoring the process and preventing major issues, the Poll Watchers had a primary job. Here's where the fun began.

There were roughly 100,000 new voter registrations in Philadelphia alone. When the RNC received the list of new registrants, they promptly sent out brochures, welcoming them to the process and promoting Republican candidates. Soon, some of those brochures began coming back with notations like "deceased" or "vacant lot" or "abandoned warehouse" on them. In all, returned mailings totaled around 10,000. That's 10,000 registrations that appeared to be fraudulent.

We compiled a list of those questionable registrations and gave them to our Poll Watchers. Their duty was to watch for folks trying to vote using those registrations and challenge the voter to provide ID and otherwise verify they were legitimate.

It wasn't long before I had my first encounter with a "Kerry lawyer" (as he called himself). I noticed him walking in and out of the polling place all morning (a criminal offense to do so without proper certification). He approached one of my Poll Watchers and took the list out of his hand and then returned outside. He then declared, as if he was making a proclamation before the United Nations, that me and my "Republican thugs" were using this list to "intimidate black voters" and "suppress the minority vote".

He obviously did not want us using the list, because it would expose the fraudulent registrations they were banking on for votes.

Now keep in mind, other than the "Kerry lawyer", I was the only other white guy standing around this polling place on election day. Throughout the day there was, on average, 50 - 100 people just hanging around this location (it was a youth gym that seemed to be a popular hangout). As he would proclaim my attempts at disenfranchisement, it would stir up the crowd and I would hear the anger boiling inside them.

Then his assistant whipped out a video camera and shoved it in my face. (I'm guessing Democrat lawyers are in some cave somewhere analyzing the video today trying to figure out how they can allege something against me to somehow make up for a resounding defeat of their candidate - good luck, guys) This guy stood in front of the polling place videotaping for 10 minutes. This is a tactic the Democrats allege Republicans do to intimidate voters. Of course, it came as no surprise to me that a Democrat would do the very act he accused Republicans of.

The Federal Elections Commission "dark suits" swooped in to settle some issues, the District Attorney's office sent staff, the Philadelphia police department got involved on a half dozen occasions and at the end of the night I took down the final vote tallies: Kerry - 1,131 Bush - 3

This was only one of my precincts. In another precinct, I personally witnessed the Democrat Election Judge allowing voters to cast provisional ballots and then walking over to the voting machine to cast real ballots. This would allow that voter's vote to be counted twice if the outcome required the counting of the provisional ballots. When I returned to this polling place, I noticed my Poll Watcher standing outside handing out DEMOCRAT brochures. I asked her why she was doing that and she said the Election Judge (Democrat) had ordered her to do it. Unbelievable.

I did feel a sense of defeat at the end of the night, having spent the day in "democrat country" fighting to keep the election process fair and honest. Seeing the results posted on the door, I wondered quietly, "how can Bush pull this thing off?"

We headed over to Arlen Specter's party and awaited the results. By the time we arrived, many east coast states had already been called and there seemed to be no big surprises. But there was a glimmer of hope... the popular vote was showing Bush with a decent lead. Then Florida starting showing signs of red. Suddenly the fatigue began wearing off and was being replaced with total and complete joy. Could this work have paid off? Could we really be on the winning side? It was interesting to see older women in formal dresses screaming at the top of their lungs "come on Wolf, would you f--king call Florida already!!!??!!?" The tide was shifting.

Now we all know the results. And while we weren't able to deliver Pennsylvania, one thing I keep hearing from folks I served with is this: We kept Pennsylvania close requiring the Democrats to expend resources therein... resources that may have otherwise gone to Ohio and changed the overall results.

I'm glad I was there to see it from the inside. I'm happy our side was vindicated against all the vitriol, false accusations, fraud and hate. The sun sure seems to be shining brighter today.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Original article can be found at:

http://texasrainmaker.blogspot.com/

Normally anything from blogspot.com goes in the blogger forum, but the systematic Democrat abuses outlined in this eyewitness account qualify as news, and should be tabulated in Backhoe's "Vote Fraud Archives".

Texasrainmaker is also a Freeper.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Thanks for your service and taking time to share what your experience.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Vote fraud archive ping

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Thanks for the effort.
I work in Philly and saw the marauding hordes. Your account is priceless.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

For thine perusal, a Philly bump.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Sorry, I should have been more clear, I am not the author, but rather freeper TexasRainmaker is the author and pollwatcher who put in all the good work in Philly.

[kitkat]

FRAUD BUMP

[nana4bush]

Bless you. You are very brave.

[speedy]

Great account, Diddle E., and thanks to you and Texasrainmaker for the story from one who grew up in the Philadelphia area and is well aware of the mysteries of its political process. I assume this information was passed on to people who can actually look into it and take corrective action? Like against that judge? This can't be ignored and will help us in the future.

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Ya know, now that we have four more years of W, and an increased majority in congress, where is the call for:

1) A national regitered voter database.

2) National standards for voting registrars

3) Tougher laws against vote fraud.

[tort_feasor]

I worked North Philly which has the same composition as the precints reported in the story. A lot of the same problems. No poll wathcers, replacements who came late, handed out Kerry literature etc. The biggest problem was that once we got replacements the campaign couldn't get out watchers certificates out. Out of 6 divisions (precintcs) Only one had someone inside. It was a long and exciting day that I will definitely try to improve upon.

[theDentist]

bumparoo

[NonValueAdded]

Just damn.

[Smedley]

He approached one of my Poll Watchers and took the list out of his hand and then returned outside.

Technically, this is battery and you should have called the police and charged the thug

[Kenny Bunk]

Good Post Diddle.

as happened iun Baltimore and St. Louis in 2002. DOJ has to flood the zone with agents and stop this as they did in Baltimore and St. Louis for the midterm elections: result two Republican Governors and some real gains. Rendell stole PA for Gore in 2000 and I suspect he did it again for Kerry. I would be very surprised if there weren't 100Thousand fraudulent votes in Philly alone. Rendell would steal a hot stove just to burn valid ballots.

Valid voter rolls are a state matter. Those who live in PA (and my sympathies) must shut down the Philly Phraud.

[WoodstockCat]

thanks for that, until computer voting with a paper trail is in place in Detriot and Philly this will continue and Michigan and Pennsylvania will remain out of reach by about 100 K votes every time.

Rep's should use part of the movement of "mandate" for using Florida voting as a model and adopting it nation-wide.

[Temple Owl]

ping

[PharthrRyte]

My cousin in Ohio informed me that his two children away at college in Colorado and New York could have easily voted twice because of the lack of national database for registered voters. I agree this national database needs to become a reality to prevent those who live in RVs from voting in two different states as well.

[Optimom]

I'm not a lawyer, but I also spent the day at a Pennsylvania polling precinct, a small one, as a poll watcher. They taught us well, I made sure to get there early enought to check the ballot box before the polls opened. When Pennyslvania went to Kerry, I also was disappointed until someone pointed out that Cambria County, where I worked hard to get out the vote, went to Bush this year. It is a county that traditionally goes 2-1 Democrat and was won easily by Gore in 2000. I admit I am proud of the part that I did now and would recommend to everyone that they turn out in 2008 to help keep the fraud at bay. Could be that is exactly what is needed to turn some blue states like PA into red states.

[Solar Wind]

D.E.S., Thanks for the post. It is an eye opener. It is only a glimpse of a very wide spread problem.

Texas, Thank you for your service. You were in the lion's den for sure. This problem needs a lot more work. Fortunately, there is a whole new wave of Republican and conservative activists that have been awakened by this election and by 9/11. The political landscape is changing quickly. Each election from here on in is going to have to be as hard fought as this one.

IMHO there is a lot of voter fraud that still changes elections. I think that there was enough voter fraud to tip over some marginal states to the Dems. If votes were counted fairly I think this election would have been a blow out. The election was won but voter fraud dulled the mandate.

More importantly voter fraud keeps America from realizing who she really is. If Middle Class America was allowed to see and realize how strong a majority they hold the whole political dynamic would change forever. None the less America's awakening has already started.

We need to work hard to clean up voter roles, recruit poll watchers, and organize for 2006, 2008 and beyond. This is a battle we can win but we must be smarter and better organized than the enemy.

Mr Sol